It is known in the art to provide natural language access to large databases such as those comprised of telephone directories, stock libraries, book libraries, and the like. Request for data from such databases are often written in natural text or spoken and converted into their textual content. Similarly, responses to requests are likewise provided in either a textual format or converted to spoken language.
Ideally, every request would recite a portion of the desired data element to be accessed verbatim so as to aid in identifying precisely which data element is desired. Unfortunately, the format of the data stored in such databases, usually in a text format, often times differ significantly from the format in which such data is requested. For example, words or phrases contained in the text may be omitted or added. In addition, the order of words may be changed. Other words may be substituted for with synonyms, while in other instances, paraphrasing may be employed.
The result of such discrepancies is that it is not possible to match requests for data with the data requested.